Chastity Chats Held for Turkmen Schoolgirls

Employees of the education and health departments and law-enforcement agencies are holding educational chats with girls from the senior classes at several of Turkmenabat’s schools, Radio Liberty’s Turkmen service reported on October 9. The meetings cover moral purity and chastity, and ethical behavior for girls. 

Increasing cases of pregnancy in the senior classes are the reason for the preventive conversations, according to the radio’s source. These unexpected pregnancies occur mainly in families in which the parents have gone abroad to work, leaving the children in the care of their grandparents. 

Turkmen.news sources have confirmed that such meetings are held, not only in Turkmenabat, but in other cities too. These sessions are held regularly, especially after a high-profile incident. The reason for the chats this time, the sources say, was a short video clip on social networks and messaging apps in which two girls, one of them in school uniform, dance to American rapper 50 Cent’s “Shake that ass girl”, doing as the lyrics command. The clip can be seen on our Telegram channel.

The recording outraged officials in the education department, the source said. The girls in the clip were easily identified, and conversations were held in school with them and with their parents.

The scandal would have been smoothed over, if the law-enforcement agencies hadn’t got involved. As a result it was decided to hold conversations with senior girls in all Turkmenabat’s secondary schools. In at least one school they searched the girls’ phones, looking for erotic photos and videos.

The recording also outraged users on social media. Some didn’t hold back in their comments, accusing the girls’ parents of everything under the sun and saying their daughters were “out of control.” But some users supported the girls too.

“What’s it got to do with anyone what they do at home?” asked someone with a woman’s user name. “You’d do better to keep an eye on your wives and daughters than stick your nose into other people’s business!”

“It was the same when I was young,” echoed another user. “There were girls from educated families that got up to worse than that. At least back in the mid-90s there wasn’t anything to record these things on or anywhere to post them. Young people today are much freer than they were 20 years ago, so get used to it and don’t go looking up girls’ skirts.”